The Covered California website is back up and running after a five day power outage due to technical issues. A website maintenance check was originally planned for February 16th and during this routine check, the website shut down because of what is claimed to be a software malfunction. Covered California has been enrolling around 7,000 people a day on the exchange trying to get as many program participants as possible prior to the March 31st deadline. Thus far, 828,638 people have been enrolled on the California open exchange.
Unfortunately, due to the website shut down, many of the Covered California representatives were forced to complete applications on paper meaning they’ll have to go back and fill out the information on the computer later. This adds hours of unnecessary labor to the employees that should have been avoided. Many people and agents are frustrated with the website errors. According to the Los Angeles Times, insurance agent Nahun Mancia claims, “It’s frustrating. You’re trying to do the best you can with what you have, but it’s just not good enough.” Though Covered California hasn’t had as many issues as the federal exchange, it has experienced its share of issues.
Some of the issues include long wait times, faulty notices sent to applicants, and a physical directory containing errors.
For more information about the status of the Covered California website, click here.